A report by the NGO Sahil states that at least 12 children were abused every day in the first half of this year
KARACHI: A recent report released by the NGO Sahil states that at least 12 children were abused every day in the first half of this year. The report further states that child abuse cases increased by 32% in the first six months of 2018 as compared to the first half of 2017.
It is pertinent to note here that these cases are the ones that came to light because they were reported in newspapers. Keeping in mind that open discussion on abuse is still a taboo in many homes in the country, it is safe to assume that many cases might have gone unreported. Parents or relatives chose to brush the issue under the carpet out of fear of being ostracised. Survivors, especially in cases of child sexual abuse, often live life without telling anyone — even their parents — about the abuse they have suffered. Sometimes they are too young to understand the situation and at other times are made to internalise the so-called shame of being abused so much so that they suffer alone without confiding in any one.
In such a scenario, a total of 2,322 child abuse cases reported in all four provinces, as well as Islamabad, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan in just the first six months of 2018, is an understatement. And that is worrisome.
Pakistan is a country where most of the population is young, the so-called youth bulge. The size of this youth is only estimated to increase in the near future. This means tomorrow’s youth could be today’s child who is vulnerable to abuse.
The judicial system of the country too has not done enough to arrest the obnoxious tendency as many a time the accused are granted bail and let off in the very communities in which they have committed the heinous act. We cannot fix a society by merely enacting laws. More needs to be done.
Unfortunately, the focus of the authorities concerned and the people itself is on the myriad political issues that plague the country than the future of our children.
Anam Jamil
Published in The Express Tribune, September 1st, 2018.
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